Ere Around the Huge Oak

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells his landlord that his grandfather tilled the farm "I now hold on your honor's estate." That grandfather left his son a good name "which unsullied descended to me" and he intends it for his child, "unblemished with shame" [see notes]
AUTHOR: John O'Keeffe (source: O'Keeffe) ["music by Mr Shield"]
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 ("_The Farmer_ ...performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden," according to O'Keeffe)
KEYWORDS: pride virtue nonballad landlord farming children family father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 83, "Ere Around the Huge Oak" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 42)
ADDITIONAL: John O'Keefe, "The Farmer" in The Dramatic Works of John O'Keefe (London, 1798 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, p. 274, ("Ere around the huge oak, that o'ershadows yon mill") (1 text)
Roud #1251
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 36(9) View 1 of 2, "Ere Around the Huge Oak" ("Ere around the huge oak that o'ershadows yon mill"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 [includes tune]; also Harding B 15(378b), Harding B 11(3695), Harding B 36(20)[includes tune], "Ere Around the Huge Oak"
NOTES [127 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "I do not think [this text] is quite complete." Actually, his text has only minor differences from O'Keefe's original. The text, of course, does not include the information that the play has before the text is sung. Specifically, in the play, Valentine offers Farmer Blackberry "any settlement" for his daughter Betty. "You know the world, and I dare say understand me." Farmer Blackberry threatens to cudgel Valentine and says, before singing this song, that "you may yet be a parent, then you'll be capable of a father's feelings, at the cruel offer to make him a party in the prostitution of his child." Taking that context into consideration at least the following keywords would be added: sex bargaining request rejection - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT083

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